winterizing

It is often desirable to remove the traces of waxes (e.g., cuticle wax from seed coats) and the higher-melting glycerides from fats. Waxes can generally be removed by rapid chilling and filtering. Separation of high-melting glycerides, or stearine, usually requires very slow cooling in…

…in a process whalers called wintering; it congealed as a white crystalline, waxy solid. Chemically, pure spermaceti consists principally of cetyl palmitate and other esters of fatty acids with fatty alcohols and melts at about 44 °C (111 °F). The former official unit of illumination, the candlepower, was defined as…